The students from Elmhurst College traveled all night by bus, stopping just once for breakfast before pulling into Washington on Monday morning. With the streets blocked off around the Capitol, they made an hourlong hike from the parking lot, arriving just as President Barack Obama was finishing his speech.

They missed a chance to see the president take the oath of office. They didn't get to hear James Taylor's rendition of "America the Beautiful." And they were too late to see Myrlie Evers-Williams, wife of slain civil rights icon Medgar Evers, make history as the first woman and layperson to deliver the invocation.

But at the end of the day, the young people said, none of that mattered. The most important thing, they said, is that years from now, they'll be able to say they were there.

"You get this sense of excitement about what's going on around you. You have the Washington Monument, the Jefferson monument and the Lincoln monument all there, and you realize that history is happening at this point," said Abraham Mulberry, a 19-year-old freshman political science and philosophy major from Byron, Ill.

"All this history in one place builds up and you understand how big of a deal all this really is," said Mulberry, president of the Elmhurst College chapter of College Democrats of Illinois. "You realize this will be a moment that you can look back on and tell your kids, 'I was there.'"

Young people played a big role in Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012, to the surprise of political observers who had written them off both times.

"Being able to vote in my first election was real cool," said Stanley Washington, a 20-year-old junior economics major from Chicago who is president of the Black Student Union. "Then to see everything we worked for in November come to fruition and to be surrounded by so many other people who are fighting for the same cause is a great experience."

Organizers said they had no troubling signing up the 56 students for the quick-turnaround trip. After dinner, they headed home and were scheduled to arrive at 9 a.m. Tuesday, just in time for some to make it to class. Without hotel expenses, the cost was only $50 per person.

Despite the difficulty of sleeping on the bus, the students were upbeat about the trip.

"It was great to have this experience to share with people I see every single day," said Meredithe Mimlitz, 20, of Elmhurst.

It's comes to no surprise to residents of the commonwealth that Virginia is growing. Like many fast-growing Southern states, Virginians appear to love sprawled-out cities and suburbs, according to recent 2014 U.S. Census estimates.

The last 11 months have been difficult for Anthony and Eldrie Scott, with every holiday or milestone bringing another reminder. They had lost their only child, something they pray no other parent has to experience.